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tales of the outdoorsSat, 20 Jan 2018 21:20:07 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.3Alaska, the final portion – August, 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1654
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1654#respondSat, 20 Jan 2018 16:10:07 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1654Winter continues. Levi has been sick for the last several days, which, well, winter, I guess? Oh well. Anyway! Where were we? We’d gotten to Alaska, gone on a spectacular kayak camping trip for a few days, and have now found ourselves back in Seward…

We took a train with windows!

After a nice, non-tent based, night of sleep, we got up and slowly headed downstairs to avail ourselves of the crepes for which the inn was known. One at a time, along with stories of the prior SCUBA-diving career of the innkeeper, they were dished out. They may have been slow, but they were certainly filling and delicious. Random Belgian innkeeper in Alaska, thank you! From there, we got a taxi to pick us (Me, Jenny, Amittai and Nathan) to drive us up the road to Exit Glacier, which is, well, a glacier right up the road, in the valley above the inn. After a kind of hilarious ride, discussing fishing in which he started pulling out random booklets and pamphlets from the glove compartment discussing how many fish of each type had been caught the prior year, we were at the glacier visitor center. We arranged with the cab driver to pick us up at a certain time, an then headed off to see what we could see.

Mmmmm, crepes

The first thing we could see was a big rock in front that demanded we run up it. It took a few tries, but people made it. The trick was to just keep going. Because stopping, obviously was failure…but so was doubting yourself. No way. From there, we ducked into the visitor center and checked it out, then, well, headed up. It was an absolutely spectacular day out – warm, clear, few clouds, just amazing. We were informed that this was probably one of the few best weather days of the year – a good candidate to head all the way to the top of the valley, to check out the Harding Icefield. I also greatly enjoyed the warning signs they had on site to let us know about appropriate behaviors around moose and grizzly bears.

Demonstrating the proper technique

Nathan enjoying his success (…don’t mind the camera clip there…)

Proper way to enjoy moose

From there, we headed up the first piece of trail, to a vantage point that gets you a good view of the side of the glacier. That is…one big wall of ice. There is a lot of glacial polish you pass on the way there, an awesome view of the glacial delta, the sound of the rushing melting water, the cold air blowing off of the glacier, and some picking of trail across open rocks. Looking at people next to the big wall of ice, even if this glacier is melting, even if it is a “smaller” one, well, the people still just seem so remarkably small. It’s awesome, in at least two senses of the word.

People next to the glacier (I’m the orange dot)

Look! An alluvial fan at the base of the glacier!

From there, we backtracked a bit, then continued up the trail, heading up the valley. The plants were really spectacular and lush. It starts with a bit through the trees, then, well, not trees, and opens up into meadows, sometimes with some great views of the glacier , and many views down. The day remained, well, perfect – if anything, almost a hair too hot. The trail definitely had some real climbing, but hey, that’s how you get those views, right? Right? Yes, actually We finally got to a point that was a great big rock overlook of the glacier. We really enjoyed sitting there for a while, just enjoying the sun, and not having to keep climbing for a while. We looked over at the glacier at one point, and suddenly realized that some little specks we were seeing on the surface were people going for a walk on the glacier. Whoa. The difference in scale was notable – it took us a serious moment to realize they were people!

The top of Exit Glacier set against some truly lush greenery

Lazing in the sun

See the people on the glacier?

How about now?

Beth and Alex showed up around this point (entirely independently) and were also suitably impressed to see the crew of people out on the glacier – so psyched that they actually ended up making plans to do it themselves the next day. After talking with them for a bit, we realized we would have to hoof it back down the hill to meet up with our scheduled cab (which…in retrospect, sadness), and Beth and Alex continued on up. They *did* make it up to the top where you can see the whole icefield, and said it was pretty cool. Alas. But…that’s life.

Beth and Alex arrive

Absolutely wrong depth of field creating a terrible photo of amittai, but nice view nonetheless imho

But instead, we headed back down, and had the taxi take us back into Seward itself, where we spent some time walking along the shoreline, still quite simply appreciating the fabulously beautiful day, though it was certainly cooling off. We headed into the “downtown” (haha) and checked out the Sealife center for its hours (finding that it was going to close soon, possibly obviating the reason we had come down earlier, alas) and instead just headed for a quick beer and hanging out. From there, we got another cab back to the Barn Appetit, and just relaxed for the evening.

Welcome to Seward

The scenery just *never stops*. Walking along Resurrection Bay.

The next day, I headed over to the SeaLife Center with Jenny and Nathan, where we saw starfish, puffins, seals, children, and Jenny pretending to eat fake fish for us. Fish are friends *and* food. The puffins were awesome, and watching a kid play with the seal through the glass was actually pretty neat. He would toss a ball up in the air, and the seal would “follow” it up and down. Overall, they had some excellent exhibits, and I would highly recommend it as a place to visit for anyone.

Starfish!

Jenny communing with a fish fish

From there we walked around town a bit, sent off some postcards (or at least got some stamps), and then stopped in for a nice cup of coffee and some relaxed reading. Somehow, I don’t recall at all how we dealt with our luggage (held at train station? someone else picked it up? We went back to get it? Unsure!) but after the coffee shop, we got a ride over to the train station, and set off on the train back to Juneau. We bought the tickets for the car with the glass top, to better really appreciate all the views. It was kind of ridiculous, but also honestly really truly awesome. The train is clearly meant for tourists, as it went sooooo slloooooowwwwwly. Didn’t see that much wildlife, but the scenery in general was spectacular, as it had been all week. The ride took notably longer than a car ride would have been, but far less cramped. Glasser alerted me to the fact that one of the men on the train was wearing a MetaCarta (!!) jacket, and it turns out that he had been one of their Texas based salesmen, which was kind of a hilarious piece of serendipity.

Very civilized coffee and reading break

Jenny is basically as tall as Kazakhstan

Traaaaaaiiiiiiiiin

Beth and Alex had made it back to the train with sheerly minutes to spare, as they had actually gone out on the glacier walk, which sounded really truly amazing, but also cut it –>
The viewing car was awesome

I mean, look! Awesome!

Hi Dave and Iris!

Hi Beth and Alex!

Once we got back to Juneau, we took a cab to the airport, and proceeded to simply wait for our flights to leave. It felt rather odd to be back in such a “modern” facility after being in such a place for a week. I realize and appreciate that my ability to go and enjoy this trip with basically no worries is dependent on all those amenities, but it was still just a bit jarring. Sitting there at the airport, notably, waiting for our late night flight was the first time we saw it get full dark all week…perhaps a fitting close to a most fabulous trip.

The train views were ridiculous

Looking back from the viewing area

and pulling into Anchorage

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16540Alaska, The Kayaking Portion – August 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1648
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1648#respondSun, 14 Jan 2018 18:40:08 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1648Well then! Winter here, several years in the future. The snow all melted in a quick 2.5 day burst of 55 degree weather, but last night dumped another foot back – at least all the ice melted out of the gutters. Small things.

We left a couple bags of extraneous gear at Adventure 60, and were driven with our gear and the boats down to the water. We hucked all our gear down a short slope to the beach, and after a short while, the water taxi pulled up. A few other small groups and ourselves were loaded on board, a whole lot of boats on the roof, and we headed off.

Piling gear on board the taxi

On the boat; grinning guy is Joel, one of our guides

The ride on the boat was somewhat choppy, and those of us more prone to seasickness were having, well, not the best time, but I luckily am not prone to such things. We first turned into Aialik Bay to drop off another group of people and started getting our first view of glaciers, and porpoises as well! We dropped off that first group and motored on, turning into the next fjord and our own destination, Northwest Lagoon. We got to the campsite and all got dropped off of the boat. We dragged all our gear onshore and set up tents, pulled boats up above the high tide line, and set up some tarps near the bear boxes (those tarps would get re-rigged several times over the next few days, but we’ve got to start somewhere, right? It was…spectacular. There was a steep wall behind us, waterfalls in at least two directions, woods, and a small spit of land that was an island at high tide and a bit of peninsula at low tide. The woods were crazy full of fish skeletons, apparently from all the fishing birds that dive for fish, drop them in the woods, eat them, and then leave carcasses behind. Nature – both beautiful and enduringly creepy.

Alex shooting some pics in the area where we dropped off the first group

Rigging the tarps

Amittai setting up his solo tent. Not a bad view.

That same day we took our first opportunity to get out on the kayaks. It was, frankly, awesome. We went up just a bit north and pulled into a beach there. We got out and played a warming up game in which each person in a circle would try to do a one-move smack at the next person around the circle but would then have to freeze in their new position. This lead, somewhat unsurprisingly to a series of ridiculous positions and an absurd amount of laughter, so, you know, success. We went back that evening and had a pretty nice dinner and settled in for our first night in tents. It all went quite pleasingly.

In our kayaks

Pulling up on a beach

Playing the game

The next day, we woke up, and there was a nice big rainbow sitting over the fjord, over the hills across the water from us. We saw low tide, and man, the water pulls down the shore pretty far. We had some morning wander, morning breakfast, morning hanging out, and perhaps most importantly, some morning coffee. Alex expressed an interest in the large pieces of glacial ice that had invaded our little bay, and we all encouraged him to go fetch a piece for us. To ice our drinks, you know. He obliged, and we watched him head out into the water and come back with a rather surprisingly large piece of ice. I mean, it broke off from a glacier, so we perhaps shouldn’t have been so surprised, but so it goes. People then started to pull themselves together a bit.

Rainbow

Triumphant return with a piece of ice

Morning stretching

The day was amazing. We started out paddling over the blue blue glacial water and quickly got far enough away from shore to leave the mosquitoes behind (hooray!) We first cut a bit northwest across the lagoon and took a bit of a break at a big rocky beach. We pulled the boats ashore, walked around a bit, hung out, talked, and, from my photos, started to get some sense of the real scale of the place. From there, we got back into the boats and kept heading up into the fjord. At one point, Amittai and Woz’s boat came right near a very large piece of ice, and we convinced Amittai that licking a glacier would be a good alternative to licking an otter (…I’ve got no idea where that came from, but it was a joke all week. There was no otter licking during our trip – promise. Though a whole family of otters did run across our campsite peninsula at one point, then to quickly disappear into the water on the other side. It was awesome.)

Nathan and very blue water

Rocky beach; Iris massaging her feet. Outdoors.

Very little people; very big outdoors

Anyway! Heading further up the lagoon. We passed rivulets, and looked at glaciers. There are a couple little islands in the lagoon, and we came near to a couple of them, at one point watching a seal spending some time watching us, with a pretty baleful eye. We turned towards the end of the lagoon, and below a cloudy sky, far above us, we could see one of the places where a glacier broke off as the land ended. Dirty snow and blue blue ice, and a waterfall as the water melts into the sea. For general safety, we can’t get too too close to the actual glacial shelves, but you don’t need to be all that close to realize just how amazing an awe-inspiring they are. We took another landing at this point (and saw one other actual boat – very exciting!), and then headed back towards the campsite.

I couldn’t skip coming in with some quality almost-glacier-licking

Trickle

Bits of glaciers

As we got back to the campsite, the sun suddenly burst out and chased away the gray. The gray was beautiful and the clouds were beautiful, making the glaciers moody (and keeping us less hot), but muted the entire landscape. The sun came out, and the whole color palette of the whole area changed. The blues were diminished, and all the greens came out, and, at least where we were, the water cleared up greatly. Jenny went out for some rolling practice, and the rest of us mostly just marveled at how nice it was. The clouds eventually came back (and plenty of mosquitoes), but it was a brilliant evening. I would say the sun then went down, but the sun was really only down during the periods in which we were asleep – so it just faded into a more dim evening, as we had dinner, and chatted, and slowly slipped off to sleep.

Sun came out

Well-lit beach

Admiring at low tide

Our good fortune, of course, was balanced the next day by the gray that settled in. The cloud layer was only a few feet above the water, and we couldn’t go out on the water (the risk of getting separated and turned around and thus lost was too great). So we settled in for the long, gray, damp day. We napped, and ate, and napped, and read, and ate, and napped, and mostly…did nothing at all. There was very little *to* do. We could walk around our land area, but we had a little bit of woods, and not much more before the fjord walls loomed over us. We couldn’t go out on the water. It was pretty damn grey out. It should have been terrible, but somehow it just wasn’t. The constant dim light, and the feeling of being out in this location where we just felt so…away, it somehow all combined, and the day was just a pleasant, calm period. If I’d been at home with that little to do, I would have gone stir crazy, but out there, it was just…ok. I’m not sure I’ve had a day like that before or since, but for some reason, it was just a calm, calm, sleepy day. Sometime around dinner, we all stirred a bit, and came out and had food, and walked around a bit. It was still super cloudy, but the actual rain had stopped.

Grey day

Bright spot against some low visibility

The next morning dawned at super low tide, and with the clouds still hanging out on top of the water, so I spent yet more time wandering around a bit, looking at the landscape of our little bit of land. The boats were very bright against the grey and green of the ground and clouds. I found some terrifying fish jaws hanging around to complement all the rest of the fish skeletons I had seen hanging around elsewhere. It did eventually clear up enough for us to head out on the boats again. Some glacier ice had found its way into our little bay in the morning. We headed out , south in the fjord, to a bay just south of ours, and then cutting out into the open water, making it through a bit more difficult stuff, to get out to the southweastern end of the fjord, where we got out and parked a bit. We got to watch the weather clearing out on the open water south of where we were. We walked along the difficult sandy beach for a while, looking at a stand of drowned trees and playing with shells and walking back along the rocks. We then had to fight out way back through the chop at the mouth of the fjord (complete with a whale sighting!), under the fabulous clearing skies, and then paddled hard into shore, where we had to pack up everything we’d brought with us, waiting for the boat to come back and pick us up.

Boats above the tide line.

Jawbone is all that’s left

Traipsing along a rocky beach

Of course, just as the boat showed up, the day became perfectly clear and fabulous. The ride back was awesome…well, for those of us who don’t have sea-sickness problems. Fortunately, I remained one of those people, and I went up to the bow of the boat to enjoy the chop and the spray with Alex. It was great fun. There were some Dalls porpoises flanking us for a piece of the ride back, which was a ton of fun to watch, as they swam around, in front, under, and by us. We got back that afternoon, and headed to the Barn Appetit. One of ours meals on the trip was supposed to be a large kettle of chili, but one of our guides, Jay, had managed to leave it behind (don’t worry, he scavenged together another meal for us), but he and Joel (the other guide) brought over the vat of chili for us all to eat that evening, so we all hung out, chowing down, and enjoying being able to take showers (though somewhat missing the amazing scenery, though really…the scenery everywhere up there was pretty solid).

Paddling in to shore

Pullups on the boat back

Enjoying the boat ride back

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16480Alaaaaaaaaaaaaska – the intro, August 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1636
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1636#respondSun, 07 Jan 2018 03:15:35 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1636In an effort to pare like a million photo post into 200k, 600k, and 200k photos posts, I’m going to break this one up. Section herein the first details everything up to the kayak trip…

In which we head to Alaska and there was landscape

Holy shit barglers. Where to even start with this one? At the beginning, I suppose. I had gone on a cruise to Alaska several years before, and despite being both fun and inspiring, my main take away from that trip was that I needed to go *back*. I felt like the cruise was the smorgasbord, and I wanted to actually really chow down into something. Of course, this was easier said than done. Where to go? What to do? Well, I poked my head into and back out of the idea several times, pulling together resources, and finally the idea of the trip I wanted to take crystallized – I wanted to go kayaking in Kenai Fjords National Park, near Seward, Alaska, on the south side of “mainland” Alaska. After several years, both the time and the money came together in a way that would make this happen…but I needed a few people. So I sent out mail to maybe 20 people, hoping that the minimum 4 total for the guide company would come together. Much to my astonishment (and delight!) we ended up with an overall group of 11 people. Awesome.

I didn’t want to have to deal with everyone’s precise planning, but I told people they needed to call the tour company by such and such date, and that they needed to get themselves to Anchorage (or down to Seward) no later than another date, and not leave until the end date. I booked a hotel for our before and after nights in Seward, and other than that, figured I’d meet up with everyone in Alaska. Again much to my delight, this worked. Apparently telling people “email this person, and then call them at this number” makes it simpler for other people to take care of business than if you just tell them to make it work

A view of Anchorage – mountains behind, ja?

We are intrepid explorers

So! Nathan and I flew up to Anchorage (oh which flight I had a truly engaging discussion with a man who is a lawyer for one of the Alaskan Native Corporations, which was pretty awesome), and got ourselves over to the hotel. I realized almost immediately that my personal phone wasn’t going to work (there is no T-mo in Alaska! Or at least not then) so sort of frantically sent out my work number to people. “Thanks, work”. We then met up with Amittai and Jenny once they finished their hiking for the day, and wandered around a bit. We went to the farmer’s market plus general sales stuff, where we bought fish prints! I also saw some staggeringly large cabbages (ye gads!) for sale, and lots of touristy kitsch, and lots of art, and lots of stuff scaling the space in between. We then went and had first dinner at Humpy’s alehouse, because, how could you say no to Humpy’s? After that, we wandered around a bit more, with Amittai and Jenny wandering off (to actually take the train down to Seward that day, I believe), and went and met up with a bunch of the rest of the people at another place – Phyllis’s cafe, where we had second dinner. I believe Alex took the opportunity to try the reindeer sausage, and was somewhat underwhelmed. We had our first experience with the sun not really, well, going down, but eventually all sauntered back to wherever we were staying to catch some sleep.

Food. JC Penney.

Alaska.

In the morning, we grabbed some quick food, then went over to the hostel a few blocks away where some of the kids were staying, and once we’d rounded ourselves up, headed to the airport to meet the last few of the party. While this of course was somehow steeped in slightly more adventure than we really would have hoped for, we all in fact were rounded up, and went outside to wait for our ride from the kayaking place to show up. He in fact did so, with a van big enough for all of us, and a sort of open trailer he had rented for all the gear we had. Upon being confronted with the fact that while we all had plenty of stuff, we had all tried to economize, he realized that he didn’t need the trailer after all, so we took a quick jaunt past Uhaul to drop it off before finally heading south to Seward! On our way, hoorah!

Pack the van!

and head south around Turnagain Arm

Anchorage the town itself is pretty , well, not so much to look at (at least the boring downtown part we saw), though it is certainly surrounded by a sheer spectacle of nature. The drive down to Seward, however, was our first super solid taste of just how amazing everything was going to be. We headed south along Turnagain Arm, looking at water and mountains and trees, stopping briefly in Girdwood to get gas, snacks, bathroom and so on. The road curves around the bay shortly after that, at which point we formally reach the Kenai Peninsula. We stopped to take some group photos at the big sign telling us so, then continued on our way. We did see plenty of cars going in both directions, but they couldn’t detract from how amazing the whole area was. We passed a few moose (cow and calves), and eventually pulled into Seward.

There were in fact other cars on the road, but the scenery couldn’t be beat.

Welcome to the peninsula!

Jump Alex jump!

Meese

We dropped most of the people off at Adventure 60 North, a block away from the hotel (le Barn Appetit, pun included, not a typo), and then went back to pick up Amittai and Jenny. I had tried to tell them it was literally a block away, but amittai thought it would be simpler to just come get him. So we looped over to get them, drove the block to the highway, then literally about 100 meters up the road to the place. We barely had time to buckle belts, at which point I got an “…oh. I see.” so I had my moment of vindication.

At the gear bus!

First shot of group meeting

Finally all gathered, we sat and had a group meeting, signed all sorts of waivers, and got kitted up with our gear for the trip. We then walked all the way back to the hotel, where we packed and prepped, went out to dinner at the nearby Salmon Bake and had, well, fish. Most of us at least. We then went back and settled in, waiting for the morning.

Jenny at the group meeting

Walking back from group meeting. I mean, this is the “boring view” part of town?!

Is everything right about this photo or is everything wrong? WHY NOT BOTH??

Sneak peak of getting our gear ready for the water taxi in the morning…

I promise the photos from later on get more spectacular

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16360Duck Pass to Duck & Pika Lakes – July 13-15, 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1630
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1630#respondSat, 30 Dec 2017 18:43:55 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=16302012 really was the best summer in many ways. We did so many awesome things! This winter of 2017 is…less awesome. We are, to date, doing fewer things. Oh well. This should get better with time. However, again, five and a half years ago, Joe and Nathan and I drove up to Mammoth to go on a backpacking trip…

In which we are somewhere beautiful

Oh me oh my. As so many of these trips begin, we headed up the eastern side of the Sierras. All three of us drove up together, and we must have headed out fairly early , as I have a pic taken right by Mt. Whitney at about 8.30 AM. We stopped in at the visitor’s center, and took a gander at Mt. Whitney, and stretched our legs, and then continued on our way. We got to Mammoth Lakes and went to the Forest Service center there and picked up our permit and a little bit on bonus map info. We quickly piled back into the car after that, and headed west and then a bit south and west , past Lake Mary, to the trailhead at Coldwater Creek. We got all of our stuff together, put ourselves together, and set out on the Duck Pass Trail.

Hello Mt. Whitney, as always not looking like the tallest one (it’s to the right, next to the two needles)

See? It’s totally called the Duck Pass Trail

The first good bit of the trail just winds through the woods. There are a few bits where you peep out of the trees and start to get some view, but mostly under trees until you do a short bit up a hill, and start walking directly up the valley. At that point, the trail levels out a bit, though still of course going up, and you start getting some views when you hit meadows. There are several lakes along this route, though some you just glimpse off the side through the trees. The trail then comes out at the head of the valley right by Red and Barney Lakes, and we stopped to take even some more pictures before picking our way up the rock slope in front of us. As you head forward, the trail is actually rather well hidden, though it’s wide and easy to see once you’re upon it. As you look down, you can see the switchbacks cut into the rocks, but from the bottom, well, not so much.

we love entering the wilderness

The trail heads up that wall. Joe is the orange dot on the left

See? Totally visible once you get up it!

So, up and up and up, as switchbacks tend to do, and every time you turn around the views are just getting better and better, making you actually feel like it might be worth it. Seeing all the lakes in a row , blue sparkles down the valley was in fact worth the price of admission. And finally, then…up and over the pass! At which point, alas, the elevation started getting to me. We had been considering going on further, but at that point, I needed to drop some elevation…stupid elevation sicky-feeling. However, why turn back? We instead went down the other side, towards Duck and Pika Lakes (both easily visible right down the slope). The trail quick-drops towards Duck Lake, then turns the northeast end of the lake, through some amazing flower fields, then cuts south along the east shore, and the amazing colored water, passing by a small (abandoned? storage?) shack built amongst the rocks, through some picture perfect singletrack, until we got over to the quick cutover to Pika Lake.

Looking back the way we came at the string of lakes.

That water was something.

It’s like we’re hiking in a guidebook here or something. Pretty.

At this point I was basically a wreck, and just wanted to sit for a bit, so we all dropped our gear (oh, that feeling when you drop your backpack after a day’s walk…so good) and the gentlemen went to scope out a camp site while I sat on a rock on the tributary from Pika Lake to Duck Lake. There was plenty of growth around, but the rock palisade surrounding Pika Lake was craggy and steep – the perfect mix of Sierra grays and greens and blues. Shortly thereafter, Joe and Nathan returned, having found a pleasant campsite just a tiny bit away, and we went and set up camp. As evening came on, we put on a few more layers, and then went and hung out by the lake and waited for sunset to arrive, lighting up the crags around us. After a pleasant dinner, and the minor ignominy of Joe ripping his pants twice on the same rock, we settled in for the evening.

Go! Go hunt us a place to sleep!

Very nice bed

Best of my mediocre alpenglow photos

The next day we got up and, after breakfast, headed out the way we had come in, but rather than going back towards the trailhead, we headed out along Duck Lake. It was almost an astonishing shade of blue, and the sun was so bright and all the colors were almost bafflingly strong and vibrant. It was amazing, if a bit hot. We got around to the southern end of Duck Lake, and stopped for some lunch, and then some splashing and cooling off in the water at the edge of the lake. It’s always *always* surprising how cold the water remains up there, even on hot days. We then kept on the trail to the short ridge on the southern edge of the lake, and I really enjoyed being able to see the glacial polish on the rock over there. The trail then cuts down and around as it winds down into the valley just below the outlet from Duck Lake. There is a cool little falls that tumbles down into the valley below, and another campsite in that area, and we ducked down into the meadow down there, and then took that as our turnaround point – this is where the trail meets up with the PCT, and while we originally wanted to go a bit along, to Purple Lake (a bit to the south), we decided against it at that point, and were pretty happy to at least meet up with the PCT at all We headed back, and had some more foot cooling, and a nice conversation with another hiker at the southern end of Duck Lake, and then mostly just moseyed back to Pika Lake.

looking back over the lake from the southern edge

some polished rock

Joe and the random guy cooling off their feet

Once back, we just kind of relaxed. We watched some people out on their little fishing floats on Pika Lake, looking very very tiny against the granite wall backdrop. I took off for a
walk around Pike Lake to a tiny little offshoot on the other side, while Joe and Nathan hung out, and soaked their feet. I enjoyed walking around to the other side of the lake, then up and over to see this other tiny area next to it. It’s funny to say this, in some ways, but it was really nice to have a half hour really just to myself – not so far from where I knew people and possessions were, but still out of sight. I played around there a bit, then came back to find Joe and Nathan skipping rocks. They skipped rocks so much that they had sore shoulders the next day! It was still pretty fun, and I tried a few as well. Nathan was really trying to get a many jumper; he did pretty well. One thing that wasn’t really lacking around there was rocks, though finding just the right size and shape of rocks was a bit more of a challenge.

Do not stir hot pots with plastic not designed for it – expert advice!

joe and nathan and off on the right the tiny black fleck is a fishing seat

Rock chucking. Not the best throw.

Sunset that night was even more photo-worthy. Some of our neighbors at the lake were set up with their tripods, and we got several good images taken as well. I then realized we were all wearing our Patagonia puffy jackets, so took the opportunity to take our Patagonia ad photo, and then just relax, breathe, and enjoy being in the woods in a beautiful place on a beautiful day, with good friends.

Slightly better alpenglow shot

So many puffy jackets #patagonia

The next morning was the standard – eat breakfast, pack up, and start heading out. As usual, the closer you get to being down (well, that was a typo for done, but I think it stands), the more you are just really focussed on getting to the end. We made it up and over the pass, certainly enjoying the views of another beautiful day as we headed out, but I have basically no images at all from the top of the pass to getting back to the car As usual, the last mile or so was just me chanting under my breath ready to be done already…which doesn’t in any way really diminish the fact that it was an amazing trip! After we got back to the car, we very very happily changed into our fresh spare clothes, and headed into town for some pizza and beer before heading out on the drive home….a satisfactory adventure all in all.

The trip totaled about 10.5 miles RT to pika + duck lake

Picking their way downhill

New shoes! New clothes! Hooray!

Time for relaxing!

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16300Mammoth and Yosemite, June 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1617
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1617#respondMon, 25 Dec 2017 18:17:55 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1617Hey I had a baby! …18 mpnths ago. There are lots of photos of that elsewhere. Some five and a half years ago, however, I drove up with Nathan and his parents towards the mountains. Man, I miss the California mountains. This was one of our last few trips before moving to New York.

In which we doddle around the Sierra

Nathan’s parents came to visit and we went on a bit of a California trip. We started our trip just heading north up the 395, past all the normal things we do. We stopped briefly at the Whitney visitor’s center and got a nice view of the mountain. It was hot and windy in the eastern valley, but a gorgeous day nonetheless. We kept heading northwards, stopping for drinks, and then heading to Manzanar. It was really such a super windy day that we were leaning over just on the walk from the car into the visitor’s center!

View of flag plus Mt. Whitney from the visitor center.

Arriving at Manzanar

The exhibit was just as powerful as I remembered, but I definitely got bored before Nathan’s parents did, as I had been there several times before, so I wandered back and forth a few times between the exhibit and the gift shop, out the back of the exhibit, back to the gift shop, back forward, and so on. From when we arrived to when I was wandering around, I noted that they had lowered the flag out back to half-mast – turns out a rescue ranger had died up in Washington state, and they were lowering it in his honor.

After leaving Manzanar, we continued on our drive up to Mammoth with no real further delay. We had rented a condo up towards the north of town, with what would be easy access to one of the ski slopes had we been there in winter. As we were not there in winter, the place was a lot less expensive and a lot less crowded. It was a two story, two bedroom place, and nathan and I had the very nice upstairs loft. After making some dinner, we largely just sat around talking and playing some Dominion, and overall had a pretty relaxing evening.

Diorama display inside Manzanar of what it was like when it was still built up

So dusty and dry. Imagining being here to be pummeled by the hot winds in summer and cold winds in winter, taken away by the government is…chilling, at best. Powerful place to visit.

The next day we headed up and towards Yosemite – such an easy drive to the eastern entrance of the park from Mammoth! I do so love it. We checked out Tuolumne Meadows, and Nathan and I headed for the top of Lembert Dome – something I’ve never done despite my may other trips to the park. We started from the meadow, starting out with his parents, but they had to drop off rather rapidly. We then cut around the north of the dome, and looped back into the east side, where we started up the rock part itself. Along the way there, there were woods, some lovely lakes, and general scenic splendor not a mile from the road.

Yosemite views never really get old for me

Good place to store someone?

The walk up to the top of the dome quickly stopped being trail and mostly was “walk up the rock face”, which is fine. It was pretty clear which way was up. First you go past just general big pieces of granite, and then there are some slabs to overcome, and then it starts actually being a bit steeper and more exposed, though still pretty doable. The day was super mega epic windy though, which definitely made it more “interesting”. Nonetheless, we easily made it up to the top and were rewarded with absolutely stunning 360 degree views, to the wilderness north of Tuolumne, of the meadow itself, of the Tioga Road, of the Cathedral Range…just everything so amazing. And of course, also windy We got some nice pictures, and just sat and enjoyed for a bit, and then slowly began edging our way down. I must admit, I was a bit nervous going down. The granite was plenty grippy, and there was no real danger, but it still felt pretty dicey, and I was pretty happy to get a hand as I headed down. Admittedly, as soon as I dropped out of the main gusts of wind, it felt a lot better.

Go up that

It was a tad windy

Great view though

We headed back down and met back up with Nathan’s parents. We had some snacks and ice cream at the Tuolumne grill, and then went down the road just a little bit and walked for a bit on the trail near the Lyell Fork. We stayed around the rocks in the river for a bit and just super enjoyed how amazingly gorgeous the whole area is. From there, we meandered our way back to the car, and did the drive back. We stopped at a couple of points on route 120 out of the park, and then headed down toward Mono Lake.

People on Lembert

In the river, as it were

I’d been there several times before, but Nathan’s parents had not. We walked down to the lake and did the little bit of trail along the edge. The tufa views were great as always, and the colors of the day were bright and vivid. I think his parents really enjoyed seeing the lake, and I never really tire of it. I love, just *love* that area, the way the desert feeling is surrounded by mountains, and road, and feelings of space. From there, we headed back towards
Mammoth, but we had a few more stops to make.

Multiple landscapes

tufa block

The first was at the very evocatively named Obsidian Dome. I will admit – I was expecting a single upthrust of obsidian. But as we wended our way through the dirt roads in the woods, following occasional signs, and getting at last to a small parking area, all I saw was a giant jumble of rocks. From satellite, however, you can clearly see the shape of the rocky upthrust : http://goo.gl/maps/LsM4x We played around at the base, and noticed that the rocks were, in fact, made out of obsidian, as one would hope they would be, based off the name! Looking up reviews now, I totally missed that you could take a trail to the top. Alas. Perhaps next time I am up in the area I will be able to take advantage of that opportunity, but it will have to wait for that next time. After that, at last, we headed back into Mammoth and settled in for the evening.

obsidian!

big heap

The next day we headed over to Mammoth Mountain itself. It turns out that you can always pay to take the ski lift to the top, so that’s what we did! I had never done that before, so it was pretty cool. First off, it’s a pretty long lift ride, and if takes you all all all the way up to the serious summit of the mountain, with 360 views, looking out over to the desert in the east, and to the Minarets and Yosemite to the north, and the general Sierras to the west, looking down into the valley that contains the Devils Postpile.

It was windy and really unwarm, but it was pretty amazing. There are also some warning signs up there about looking for unexploded ammunition! I guess they use things to mitigate snow levels, but being warned about it is always a little surprising. That was just the bonus frisson of entertainment on this magical, amazing view from up there. We then went and checked out the small exhibit at the building, and had a snack at the restaurant before heading back down. And then we headed further down from town, and headed over to the Hot Creek geological site. The warning signs for *that* were pretty impressive. However, I suspect they are adamantly correct, as the very bright colors and steam coming off the springs do warn of the heavy metals and high temperatures.

minarets

wind in one’s face

ordnance

The bright colors really were eye-catching, and the stream itself stood out in the landscape that was already turning into desert, being just far enough down into the rain shadow of the eastern sierra. The views of the landscape studded with scrub and scattered trees, with the creek running through it, and the high mountains in the background was truly impressive. After we finished there, we started our drive back home.

caution

bright colors; mixed landscape

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16170Eaton Canyon to Henninger Flats – June 10, 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1605
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1605#respondTue, 09 Feb 2016 16:22:59 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1605This winter is still a bust, more or less, though it looks like we might be getting a hair of a promise of winter on the horizon later this week? Who knows. Anyway, life proceeds apace. Doing various work here and there, not getting out anything like at the level I’d like, but…oh well. People visiting, putting the house together, and just getting stuff done one day at a time! Not too bad. So…instead, perhaps I can do a bit more of the things I used to do, back when I lived near mountains and good weather. In June 2012 Nathan, Joe, Gretchen and I did a 7 mile hike with 1300′ of gain (to 2550′) from Eaton Canyon to Henninger Flats and back again. Mostly on fireroad, but nice for all that, and the exceedingly pleasant forested bit at the type made a nice change up.

We made a plan to try and do a Sunday hike, but had time restrictions. Then Joe suggested doing an easy hike, namely, Henninger Flats, because he was a bit worried about his foot injury. Gretchen initially suggested some farther away things, but at the end, we compromised and did this one, easy, closer hike, which ended up fulfilling everyone’s needs quite well!

Nathan and I drove to Eaton Nature Center at the agreed upon time of 8.30 AM, and saw Joe just two cars ahead of us…and the parking lot already a total disaster of an area. Alas. However! Gretchen, in her amazing brilliance, had managed to snag two last minute parking spots for us and was just hanging out in them with her bike. Being right next to a speed bump I guess saved her from having other drivers try and run her over in their effort to get a spot, since I guess it looked less like Real Parking or something.

Once we managed to get ourselves all sorted out, we headed on out. This is the basic trail that gets you to Eaton Canyon waterfall, so first is goes through some scrubby zone, then across a creek bed that was mostly dry at this point, and then you walk on a wide dirt path by the riverbed, partially in some oak shade, and partially just by the hill. This is generally a popular area, and there were a lot of people out, as usual, whole families, people with dogs, people with kids, all sorts of stuff.

Other people out walking

As we continued, instead of taking the left hand, downwards fork that would have let us go down the creekbed and eventually to the waterfall, we instead headed to the right, which led us to a bridge. We also skipped the Walnut Canyon option that would have taken us even more steeply up to the
toll road. The bridge is where another trailhead meets up to this area, and is also where we made a quick switchback to start the trail up to Henninger Flats. It was a warm, very humid morning, but was generally overcast, so we were saved the wrath of the direct sun. However, the humidity was bad enough, since I’m really not used to hiking in humid conditions, and feeling all gross and sticky really doesn’t make me very happy. However, I generally persevered, and we followed the fire road as it switchbacked it’s way up and around the hills, from one side to the other, slowly revealing farther , if hazy, views over the city.

But why take photos of the city when you can instead take photos of tall plants near your friends against a clear blue sky?

I guess you can sort of see the city peeking out from behind the tree. I prefer the tree though.

We continued on up, and started to get our first views of the nicely treed area that we were heading to. (I didn’t actually end up with any photos up there, so look here if you’re simply that duly curious) There are several benches on the trail on the way up, and we did stop at a couple of them, but not too much, since we were all fairly eager to get to the flats. Finally, rounding one last bend, we made it up, and to the very desired coolness of the nice shady area. We wandered over to one of the picnic tables, and sat down and relaxed for a bit. We snacked, and checked out the visitor’s center, and took a look at the fire tower up there, and just generally had a pleasant time thinking about how we could totally go camping up there. It really does seem perfect, since it is only a ten minute drive and a couple hour walk up the hill.

Eventually, though, it did come time to leave, and we packed up and shouldered our bags and headed back down. The haze had burned off by this time, so we were in much more direct sun, but at least it was less humid, and downhill is always easier for me than up. The trip down was pretty entirely uneventful, just chatting and walking and having a pleasant time. Since it is fireroad + the flat area back to the car, it went really quite quickly, and we were back at the vehicles by 12.30 or 1 PM or so, which was honestly pretty cool for what is a 7 mile hike the way we did it!

The colors were so pleasingly vivid

all of us in full sweaty glory at the sign, which clearly didn’t need to be in the shot

We are smaller than trees

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16050Disneyland May 29, 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1603
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1603#respondThu, 28 Jan 2016 15:39:56 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1603Heh. California dreaming much? Though really, this Rochester winter is a bust so far. Of course, that means that I am jinxing it, right? Anyway, let’s wind up this time machine again, shall we? So….What can I say? I took the opportunity to take Nathan to Disneyland before we moved away from Southern California. Kip and Glenn were awesome and took us, and I would say that we had, you know, fun. As the kids say. Nowadays. Anyway, we went out for the day and hit both DCA and the Magic Kingdom. Let’s photo!

We started our day at DCA. We rode some rides! If I recall correctly (who knows, but could be) it was rather warm out. Which makes rides the right answer, yes? Anyway. We rode the big swings! We rode some other rides too. One of them was Goofy’s flight school, which we were “clever” about and went through the single riders line for. So we didn’t get to ride together, but I think we all got to ride a lot faster than we would have otherwise. What else did we do? Well, walked around, rode some rides, of which one of my favorites was California Soarin’, because…thats a big screen. And you’re really flying, or so it feels like, and…yeah.

See, my feet, and an angle, means I’m flying through the air!

Kip has truly an unreal ability to see the camera and pose for it. Always.

Nathan and I and a rafting bear! Because that’s totally what you would want in a raft with you.

We also wandered over to the area where, well, they swear they were building the Cars area, which of course was not done yet. But what would Disney be in today’s day and age without a ton of construction going on? We also went to the Tower of Terror, which I think mostly checked us out of DCA for the day.

See , I think it must have been rather warm because Glenn was *so disappointed* when the spray turned off right when he got there.

Ok, so one amusing thing on the construction walls was this sign at least. Los Feliz!

After ducking out of DCA, we went across the way over to the Magic Kingdom. (Ok, and it will never stop being a little weird that they built DCA…where the parking lot used to be. I still just have mental images of parking right in front of the Magic Kingdom and walking up to the ticket kiosks, which now sort of float in the plaza between the Magic Kingdom and DCA. I mean, it’s effective, but still, everything changes! Except, of course, for most of what I like in the Magic Kingdom. The only thing I have real memories of that just isn’t there anymore is the air tram to Fantasyland, but I think of it every time I walk past the building (…though checking online tells me that is due to be demolished soon.) But, you know, the big coasters, the teacups, that’s really all you need, you know?

Nathan and the rabbit in luuuuuuuuuurve

Really just posted for the facial expression, while taking a brief stop near the river.

…and the part where I mentioned the teacups? I do so love the teacups. The teacups make life better, in all ways. All of them. Even the terrible music. Possibly especially the terrible music. Anyway, we did some more rides, then had some supper, then caught the light show in the evening, then, tired and happy, headed home in the evening. As you do, right?

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16030Mt Baden Powell – May 27, 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1597
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1597#respondFri, 04 Dec 2015 03:00:50 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1597Happy week after Thanksgiving, friends. Some cold virus has taken it upon itself to fell me most thoroughly this week, so sitting here typing this is one of the more energetic things I’ve done this week. Baby steps! Anyway, a horrifyingly long 3.5 years ago I went on a hike for my birthday, and got to meet up with Dan on his trip over the PCT. I’d gone up Baden-Powell a fewtimesbefore , but that doesn’t make it a less cool hike to go on. We also saw people flying in gliders. It was a beautiful day. (ETA – this is an 8 mile RT, 2800′ gain hike)

soaring above

I invited a lot of people along for my birthday hike, but almost nobody was in town or otherwise able to make it. However, Nathan was of course there, and Jess was able to make it as well, so we had a small party of people to drive up with. Also, due to some unavoidable schedule irregularities, Dan had called me a couple of days before, and he was just coming into Wrightwood along the route of his PCT adventure. This is just a hair before Baden-Powell, so we arranged to meet up with him at the summit.

So, the three of us drove up there and managed to arrive right about when I had hoped, around 10.30. The drive up (the way around through Cajon Pass) was actually surprisingly green…well, in the way that Southern California desert areas can get, in the way that looks so green to me, but not to people more used to the east coast Anyway, we went around and past the Mormon Rocks, and up into the mountains, and made our way safely to Vincent Gap.

sloth imitation

we found some snow!

It was a pretty crowded day, but we found a spot right across the street, and started up the hill. I’ve done this hike a few times before, and it was basically as I remembered it…starting out in pretty good shade, with long lazy switchbacks. Having a cold definitely made it a little harder to keep pushing up the hill, as breathing was definitely a bit of a challenge, and my heart rate kept speeding through the roof. I definitely tried to make it up a few switchbacks before needing to take breaks – hitting breaks at switchbacks 4,8, 13, 16 to start off. We passed a good number of other people going both up and down.

The day was really honestly just about perfect weather, starting maybe in the 50s, and heading up to the 60s, and occasionally a bit warmer in the sun. The trail criss crosses out of cover many many times as it wends it way to the summit. The many many switchbacks let us get continually improving views of Baldy, the Mojave, and places farther distant. As we started to get to the switchbacks above #20, they finally started getting shorter, and we were really feeling as if we were pushing our way more quickly up the hill. I knew they started longer and got shorter at the top, but I thought there were a few quick turns, and we would immediately find ourselves at the ridgewalk, but of course there was just a little bit more work to do (as there always is) before you get to where you think you’re going to get to!.

View into the distance

getting closer

But we made it to the back and forth quick area on the top, and then made it to the ridgeline, which was actually just as awesome as I recalled. There is one bit of real knife-ridge, nice and sharp with views both way, some of which were really stunning. We then made it over to the junction, where the summit bit turns off from the main PCT. Up here, we were seeing little bits of the rime ice Dan had been mentioning. It had just rained during the week, so I guess it was deposited then, but in the bright sunshine of the day, it was falling off the trees in big chunks. On such a bright beautiful generally dry day, it was weird to see these random new pieces of ice falling around on the ground. Anyway, the last few switchbacks up to the summit were just as crappy as I remembered, but I pushed through it. There were lots of people hither and yon, but there was still plenty of room for everyone, and the view from the summit is a great 360.

When we got to the summit, around 1.15, we found that Dan was already there, which was awesome. So we sat and talked with him and took some photos and had some other through-hiker take a couple of photos, and we sat down and ate lunch. There were some ultra-light planes flying overhead, glider types I guess, and they were swooping around this way and the other and generally being very close to our summit. It was really cool to watch them coming and going, and we generally even felt like we could just about see into the cockpits. That really looked like a huge ton of fun! The time on the summit was really pleasant, and I gave Dan some maps I had printed out for him, but eventually the time came for us all to go, and we headed back down the summit track. We got to the turnoff, and said goodbye to Dan (who I would see a few days later), and started our way back down the slope.

group summit pic

Hi dan!

The way down was definitely a lot easier for me to breathe on, since downhill just isn’t heart taxing the same way. The down trip was fairly uneventful, with mostly uninterrupted walking punctuated with occasional conversation. The weather had shifted a bit and it was notably warmer on the way down, but nothing too crazy. We did do a bit of stopping to take a few photos on the way down, most notably when nathan wanted to get some shots of some snow flowers we had seen on the way up, and also, jess wanted to find a most excellent pine cone. These diversions were pleasant to break up what was mostly just a downhill walk. There were a few different things we could see on the way down, but generally, especially since the trail was so switchbacky, the new things to see were on the trail itself, rather than any particularly interesting new views.

And then we successfully made it down, yay!

another glider pic

ridge trail down

and very almost down

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=15970Reagan Library, March 31, 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1587
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1587#respondFri, 27 Nov 2015 02:37:19 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1587Summer has turned well into fall. I quit my job a bit ago, so really it seems straight up shameful to not be writing a few of these while I have the time. Let’s presume that soon enough I’ll be back to being a busy-bee, so, might as well do some of these Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to you all!

But the point of this post? Why, nothing but a trip to the Reagan Library, back in March 2012. We’re terrible at spur of the moment stuff, but somehow, while sitting around wanting to do something, came up with the idea to head out to the Reagan Library, which neither of us had ever been to. It turned out quite engaging, as soon as you subtracted some of the “rah rah Reagan” rhetoric

laid to rest

We’re greeted by Ronald and Nancy

Note that their card says “With warmest wishes for the holiday season”

His schedule listing for the day of his attempted assassination

I can easily say that this in-administration documentation was easily some of the more fascinating bits. All of the text arguing about how cool Reagan was, well, whatever. But he was there for a lot of history, and seeing a lot of that minutiae was really cool. And the holiday card, fine, there is a tree and a wreath, but it sure didn’t say Merry Christmas, so all those people should just cool their jets.

It’s like the man is right there with you. This was right outside the replica of Reagan’s oval office.

Yes, I’m possibly dressed like a slob. Victory!

Air Force One

This was also pretty awesome. They have Air Force One from that era (used by Nixon in 72 through to GWB in August 2001, though it was backup from 1990 onwards), and it’s in , well, a giant room that is big enough for a Boeing 707. That’s a big room. The big space you can see down below it can be rented out for parties, which, in face, they were setting up for that evening. You could also board the plane and see it decked out in 80s era setup. You could get a lot more work done on a plane like that, one imagines.

I did not get a photo (or at least one that I kept) of Reagan’s giant collection of belt buckles. Apparently he quite liked these, so he got them as gifts from everyone – anyone visiting, more or less, during his presidency, from various friends and so on, and there were a *lot* of them. The display in the museum had only a fraction of those he owned, and it was still kind of a baffling number of them.

Statement at the base of the Berlin Wall Panel

Piece of the Berlin Wall

Inside there is a large Cold War exhibit. It’s…hrm, it has a viewpoint, though also fairly informative. Outside, however, there is this piece of the wall, which I found to be good cause for reflection. I remember it being a big deal when it happened, but at that age I was, it was more a mythic thing. The wall fell! But here I felt like I could connect with it in some tangible way.

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=15870San Diego, March 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1581
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1581#respondMon, 05 Oct 2015 00:21:27 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1581Not so much to really write up – Jenn was down in San Diego for ACS, and convinced me to come down for a day. So I did! I took the train down, from Union Station, which I hadn’t done before and I really enjoyed – the first part runs through the industrial areas behind union station, and the last part runs along the beach (basically right next to I-5 as it comes into San Diego). Highly recommended. With Jenn, I hung out, saw some other people, crashed the poster session at ACS, and basically went home the next day. Not so much “done” , but a fun short trip regardless.

The indoor “outdoor” Trax eating area at LA Union Station

Industrial areas as the train pulls out of LA

LA River, and even arguably some flora and fauna! I’m so excited for the future plans for the river.

Train goes right by Angels Stadium. In Anaheim. Which is in Orange County. Which is not in LA.

Pretty pier as we start going right along the coast

Birds against the sky. Fine, fine, I love this.

Super Californian

Awesome decor on an energy building

Train station down in San Diego

And inset in tile

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http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=15810Snowshoeing at Mt. Baldy – March, 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1572
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1572#respondSun, 30 Aug 2015 00:55:05 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1572We’ve had a few days of weather reminding us that fall is approaching, and term has started already for Nathan, but the summer weather appears to be back for a few weeks now. So, in honor of appreciating the last few weeks of summer, let’s talk about snow in LA, yes?

March 18 – 2012, I went with Jenny, and we went and walked around at Mt. Baldy a bit (around Manker Flats, the waterfall, and the fireroad). It was another example of the variability I love to see in the outdoors you can experience in the greater LA area – if you’re willing to take advantage of it. Or if someone calls you up and encourages you to take advantage of it

Water still falling

This was another little last minute thing. There had been a good storm, and Jenny rang me up and asked if I wanted to go for a quick snowshoe jaunt. She didn’t really know so much of what was up near Baldy yet, and I knew a bit, but not so much more about this snow travel version of it, but I said heck, let’s go for it. I don’t think we ended up doing quite as much travel as maybe we could have, but overall I think we still got a really nice day and some awesome things to see out of it.

As usual with trips heading up to wintry things in Southern California, the drive itself was begun in sunny and green landscape (it is the paradox of SoCal that the lower elevations are much greener in the winter than other times seasonably But soon we started to see the hillsides around us dusted in snow. Then a bit more than dusted. Then verging into heavily covered. When we stopped at the visitor’s center to get our permit, I would in fact say that there was “a lot” of snow – involving even seeing all the yuccas all snow covered, which never ceases to entertain me. Shortly after that, we pulled over at the chain station, just before the road starts some of its real crazy up sections, and Jenny got to learn how to put on her new “quick, easy” chains, which of course, this being the first application, were neither quick, nor easy. However, neither were they overly difficult, and we proceeded onwards, quickly getting to Manker Flats parking where we stopped car travel, getting ready to continue with on foot.

Snow dusting

More than just a dusting now…

We started on up the fire road, and unlike some of my prior adventures up this way, we got to snow basically right away. We had our snowshoes on well before the first turn in the road, by the waterfall. However, instead of continuing up, we ducked over and down, towards the waterfall, which was great fun, as I had never gone over and seen it up close before. It was going pretty gangbusters, providing some great tumbling water and slush, then running under the snow all around us. It’s only a small waterfall, but watching it tumble down in the middle of a snowy day in southern california was a pretty memorable experience, and some truly impressive icicles hanging around. After tramping around there a bit, we continued on up the fireroad, and for once, rather than turning up the side trail towards the ski hut, we stayed on the fire road. Total craziness.

approaching the falls

icicles

The snow started getting pretty deep, and we got to some unmarked parts – breaking some trail, which is always harder work than I imagine it is going to be. We walked on, and the road curves around a small valley, and then ends up at the bottom of a hill where, looking up, you can sort of kind of see some of the Baldy Ski area well up above you. I think some of our original intent was to maybe try and get up there and have a nice warm drink, but it was going to be quite a great deal of uphill, and I think it was 80% my decision, with 20% of Jenny agreeing, but also looking wistfully upwards, that we decided we should head back. To the car, but from there, only to Baldy Village, where we stopped in at the restaurant and got ourselves some hot chocolate and people watching

“fire road”

group shot

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=15720Joshua Tree – Christmas Day, December 2011http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1452
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1452#respondWed, 26 Aug 2015 01:41:30 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1452How…did I not post this? Ok, so, we’re coming into the end of summer, work’s being all a thing, and hey, it’s time to get photos, blog, and everything in order, right? Right? Yeah, I buy it. So! I went looking for the next post, and I saw this title in the drafts, and realized it had never been posted so now it is horribly out of order, and I shudder with shame. Please absolve me. I realize that I likely didn’t write this up because, well, I have never had much written up for it. Long and short of it, I went out to JTree for a day, Christmas Day as a matter of fact, met up with some Caltech folk, climbed one rock, failed to climb another rock, and ate some Chinese food. All in all, an acceptable day I would say.

Joshua Tree just doesn’t look real, does it?

Dawn coming up over the windmills in the desert pass

Looking down at the campsite people had been at – we climbed right next to it to start

Rappelling is the funnest

Go Pratyush! Climbing the crack I did not succeed on

In some sideways motion

The Chinese restaurant was really committed to people knowing which restroom was which

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=14520Big Sur – March 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1489
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1489#respondSun, 23 Aug 2015 02:22:12 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1489We went up to Big Sur for Glenn’s birthday over March 9-11, 2012

Must get under the road somehow

Glenn wanted to go for a trip for his birthday, so he rented a great cabin in Big Sur. http://www.vrbo.com/311396 He found a great place to rent, and various people streamed north for the weekend. Nathan and I headed north on Friday. On the way north, we had a brief pause while they were filming a car commercial in the California coastal range mountains. We saw the car they were filming, and the chaser film car – turns out it was a Subaru BRZ ad. Those must be fun. We headed on, stopping for gas in Cambria, one of those little fancy towns. At that point, it was getting dark…just as we got to the PCH, alas. We somehow managed to continue on up the highway, twisting and turning every which way, and used the directions to turn first off onto the side road, and then even up the private road to the rented cabin, and finally made our way there. Yay! It was great to arrive.

Birthday boy

lovely deck

The next morning we woke up, and were greeted by a troupe of turkeys walking through the hillside back yard. We sat around and had breakfast, and hung out, and generally enjoyed all of our company in the daylight, and awake. After a slow start on the morning, we all got ourselves together, and headed out for the day. We stopped in for a moment at this Big Sur Village General Store and Burrito Bar (…someone needed to get something, I guess, as I don’t really remember We then headed on down to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We got in, and trekked the brief stint over from the parking lot, through the tunnel over the highway, to the point where we could get a view of McWay Falls, which really just is that beautiful. We kept walking along a brief bit in that direction, where there are the ruins of a house that would have had that amazing amazing view : http://www.pelicannetwork.net/bigsur.brown.burns.htm

McWay Falls

Walkway along coast

We headed back along the coast southwards for a bit, enjoying the amazing plants and overall view. We then headed to a different part of the park to take a quick walk among the redwoods – I think probably up the Ewoldsen trail, but am unsure. Either way, it was a lovely little creek walk, with ferns and trees and creek hopping and general pleasantry. After lunch out there, we headed towards the Big Sur Lodge in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park (the names aren’t confusing *at all*). From there we headed, *I think* up the Pfeiffer Falls trail. There was some climbing, and some bridges, and steps, but eventually we came around a corner and saw a nice little other fall. It was nice! After which we wended(?) our way back to the beginning, and went to the store to get some ice cream, which is honestly always one of the high points of going out for the day, you know? After that we went back to the cabin and had great dinner, and played games, and overall had, well, an evening. With friends.

Two couples for the price of one! In the redwoods

Driving back along the coastline

The next morning we got up and did not much at all, to be honest. We got up, had some breakfast, lounged around, and packed up. After that we headed south a bit and went to Nepenthe for lunch, which was pretty cool. I’ve heard of it many times in the past, and even driven past a couple of times, but I’ve never made it there to eat before. It’s on the cliff overlooking the ocean (of course), so it’s all just beautiful views. We got there fairly early, so we didn’t really have to wait overly long. The food was pretty good, but not great I would say. The views made up for it though, and they actually have a really awesome gift shop (though I didn’t really end up buying anything). But! Food, views, chatting, social. Then we hung out some more in the parking lot, because we like hanging out! Eventually, alas, it was time to head out.

View from Nepenthe

I made a triptych!

So we headed south. The drive was pretty mellow, but we did stop a couple of times, first to just get some beautiful views over the ocean, where we also espied a couple of otters resting down in the kelp. The next stop was just around San Simeon, at Piedras Blancas, to check out all the elephant seals. It was nearing the end of the breeding season, so we saw a whole ton of the growing pups, and several mothers…and a couple of the dudes who were still hanging out, which is apparently unusual that late in the season. They ended up looking like something just completely different, which was *crazy*. They are so huge. We got to see a couple of them moving about, and basically being a giant muscled slug makes for some great galumphing along. They move in an almost earthworm like fashion, but…a whole heck of a lot bigger. It was awesome to watch, and we enjoyed that a bit until it was time to keep going, and make it home that evening.

Nathan and the ocean

Differently sized seals

On the beach. Flop!

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=14890Flagstaff, Arizona – January 2012http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1487
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1487#respondSun, 31 May 2015 23:29:55 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1487I keep promising myself I’ll get at least a post a month, and then the end of the month rolls around, and I feel pressured..hey, at least it keeps me going. I realize I’m now most of 3.5 years behind (let’s call it “throwback thursday” forever, not that I post on Thursdays, or any given day), but the last year or two has really had very little that will be postable, so I still swear I’ll catch up someday…

Anyway, winter turned to spring turned to almost freaking summer instantly, and then today dropped 40 degrees. Thanks, weather. It’s still terrifyingly green around here. I guess we get green, or white, with a brief splash of fall color, and little more. No big things happening, no big things coming up, though I *will* be going backpacking in California in August – hooray! That said, in January 2012, Nathan and I went out to Arizona for a few days…

But which way should we *go* ??

January 3-6, 2012

We wanted to go skiing, and were trying to see what kinds of places we could drive to, that weren’t really Mammoth, and we ended up looking to the ski slopes in Flagstaff. We knew it might be a little dicey to schedule, since the mountain there cannot use artificial snow making, and is thus very much at the whim of nature, but we went out for the weekend anyway (there is actually a fair bit of controversy about this, which I only knew about vaguely before.) . We drove out, which was a pleasant winter drive through the desert, and it was still pretty dry as we started going up and up as we got closer to Flagstaff, but we could see snow on the mountains as we arrived, though not a ton (more or less a common line of our trip).

See the snowy peaks…

Not quite so much snow on the mountain itself

We got into Flagstaff and checked into the hotel, and spent a little time that evening walking around the restored downtown area. We grabbed some dinner and a beer and checked out an outdoor shop, but really, we’re not great at doing so much As it was the middle of winter, the sun goes down pretty early, so we ended up simply heading out to see a movie that night, and getting snacks at the grocery store before basically settling in for the evening.

The next day we headed out to Snow Bowl, which was in and of itself a lovely drive out of town towards the nearby looming mountain. The mountain is definitely a bowl; unfortunately there just wasn’t quite enough “snow” to really live up to that name. Nonetheless, there was enough there to ski with, so, ski we did. It was really a lovely place and not too overcrowded – I would happily go back again. The snow was a bit slushy, but I still had some great runs…down the greens. As you do, at least if you’re me. I also spent some time just sitting on the deck in the sun.

Certainly irregular

For sale / lease :/

After skiing for the afternoon, we headed out. Then we turned around when we realized Nathan had left his jacket on top of the car, but fortunately we went back and it had been picked up and left at the lost and found. So then we actually managed to head out, and we headed over to the Grand Canyon, which Nathan had never seen before (not that I’d seen it more than that one time). It was a gorgeous drive over, with the light drawing itself over everything, and the canyon itself was truly majestic, which it really can’t help but be. We walked around along the south rim until just about sunset, enjoying the vista of the canyon and the amazing colors as the sun dropped down.

Photographing people photographing the Canyon (Mather Point).

Nathan looking at the Canyon

The next morning it was pretty cold in all of Flagstaff, and we headed out to the mountain again. We spent the morning skiing, on what was basically pretty rapidly disappearing snow, and then didn’t really do much of anything else that evening

branches

sunsetting

Next morning skiing. I was amused at the matching set of rider on the two chairs

The next morning, we went to go check out Walnut Canyon, another monument near Flagstaff. It’s a cliff dwelling site, inhabited about 900 years ago. There are some ruins on the top of the cliff, an excellent visitors center, and then a trail down and around the canyon – it passes past several of the dwellings, and has excellent view of many of the others.

As we were down into the canyon, I found myself really impressed at how well the visitor center had been built, giving it both excellent views into the canyon, but also seeming fairly unobtrusive against the rocks of the cliff wall. After walking around there, we were done for the day and…went home. I realized a while later I’d left all my jackets at the hotel! Oh well – these things happen, I know.

Dwellings in the middle stripe; visitor center at the top right

The rooms were pretty short for Nathan

Live in the canyon; farm up top

]]>http://annabarr.org/blog/?feed=rss2&p=14870Tucson – December 2011http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1448
http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1448#respondThu, 30 Apr 2015 19:36:38 +0000http://annabarr.org/blog/?p=1448I spent a few days in Tucson in December 2011. I saw a lot of cacti – it was pretty outstanding.

This saguaro is trying *so hard*

Well, golly gosh. I had kept saying I would go visit Rax in Arizona, and I finally hoofed (well, flew) out there and we got to spend some time together. Anyway, on the morning of the 8th (December 2011) I headed out to the airport. I took the opportunity to take the the dash to the red line to union station to the flyaway to the airport…good times. fairly smooth, given all those transfers, honestly. I made it safely to Tucson (quick, easy flight) and Rax picked me up at the airport and we went back to the house.

Rax has…a really lovely house. It has a great, shady, open yard, full of wonderful desert things. The interior of the house is nice and cool, with both a great view and an awesome stained glass window in the room up where I was staying. That evening I think we mostly just sat around and hung out, but…various things we did over the course of the weekend that I can’t quite place on a timeline : went to a pokemon CG evening, went to Trader Joe’s (at least twice!), made some food, ate some food, watched some My Little Pony, and just spent a lot of time generally talking.

View from the upstairs bedroom

Stained glass sea creatures

The next morning we had to swing by campus briefly, but then found ourselves wandering through a street fair in Tucson. Lots of things for sale, hand made, mass produced, food, this, that, and other. Some amusing art prints (“Now that food has replaced sex in my life, even I can’t get into my own pants”), etc. We walked the long way down one side, and then the long way back up the other side of the fair, and eventually ended up at Revolutionary Grounds, having coffee and snack.

I took very few photos around Tucson itself

Doubly emblematic of America, or Murica, whichever you prefer

The next day we headed out to Saguaro National Park, to the eastern part. It was really awesome. We did a bit of the drive through the park, and walked along some nature trails. It was really super awesome. The plants out there are amazing. The saguaro and ocotillo, prickly pear and palo verde plants are just awesome, and such desert vistas, over the desert, with the mountains looming behind. It made me really happy to walk out there. Someone had a huge issue on one of the nature trails with the word “monsoon” on the signs…I really can’t tell why. The palo verde trees and mesquite bushes provide cover for the growing saguaros, which eventually take over the habitat, but they then provide habitat for many other animals. So awesome. The desert there is so very full of life.

We also stopped in at the visitor center, and attended a talk about the various life in the desert, and some information about the small wolf population of the Sonoran desert that they are studying. We were basically the only ones there, so we got our own naturalist talk, which was pretty great

Yet more cacti!

Desert creature

The next day we headed out of town to the west, which was also a good direction to drive The western outskirts of town have lots of nice, large houses, but they also somehow tend to blend into the landscape. Lower profiles and muted color palettes will do that. I was impressed. Also, as you head west, the saguaro trees just start to be *everywhere*. Super dense growth , about as close as I think they can reasonably be, they dot the hillsides up and down, profusely. Continuing to drive west, the road goes up and over a pass ( < a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gates_Pass>Gates Pass, apparently) , giving you an amazing vista as you crawl down the side of the mountain on the other side. From this point, we kept driving until we got do the Arizona-Sonora desert museum, which is a kind of a zoo-qua-natural history type of place. Lots of animals, lots of outdoor exhibits, lots of walking around, and lots of explanation of how many of the desert habitats work. It was pretty great to see all the animals, and just quite pleasant to walk around and enjoy the exhibits. There is even the possibility that we learned something. Maybe.

Other than that, there was sitting around, and eating, and just spending some time together, which was greatly enjoyable, and then, alas, too soon, it was time to go home.